Richard Gere is internationally known as a film actor and dedicated social activist and philanthropist. For more than 25 years, he has worked to bring attention and practical solutions to global issues rooted in intolerance, injustice, and disparities between people. Through his private foundation, the Gere Foundation, Mr. Gere has served as a longtime advocate and supporter of numerous human rights and humanitarian causes. His relief work has taken him to Geneva, Kosovo, Macedonia, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua.

Since the 1980s, Mr. Gere has worked vigorously to protect the human rights and cultural continuity of the Tibetan people. He was the founding Chairman of Tibet House New York from 1987 to 1991 and in 1992 joined the Board of Directors of the International Campaign for Tibet in order to more effectively address national and international forums of influence. He has served as its Board Chairman since 1995. To provide information on the Tibetan crisis, Mr. Gere addressed the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, the U.S. House of Representatives, the European Parliament, and the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva. In 1991, 1999, and 2003, Mr. Gere co-sponsored the public talks, teachings and related activities of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in New York City.

Deepening his commitment to help people solve complex and intractable issues, Mr. Gere founded the Healing the Divide Foundation in 2002. The Foundation challenges failed modes of thought and action and inspires fresh approaches by bringing together leaders and organizations from all sides of a particular issue. Mr. Gere and Healing the Divide are focusing their efforts in four key areas: the rapidly accelerating HIV/AIDS crises in India, U.S. prison reform, Human Development in the Himalayan Region, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Through his private foundation, the Gere Foundation, Mr. Gere continues to be a longtime supporter of other HIV/AIDS, humanitarian aid, human rights, and cultural preservation organizations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Survival International, among others. Mr. Gere has been a longtime sponsor of amfAR, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and Aids Research Alliance. He hosted the 1992 World AIDS Day event at the United Nations. He has received important awards from the Harvard AIDS Institute, amfAR, Amnesty International, and the prestigious Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian Award.

Since his film career began in 1975, Mr. Gere has starred in over 40 movies. His best-known films include: "An Officer and a Gentleman," "Days of Heaven," "American Gigolo," "Looking for Mr. Goodbar," "Pretty Woman," "Primal Fear," "Unfaithful," and "Chicago," for which he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor. Mr. Gere attended the University of Massachusetts where he was a philosophy and theater major.